//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 On the troublesome road to a new home // Story: Pass of the Sphinx // by J-90 //------------------------------// Chapter 2 On the troublesome road to a new home 'Wait... Waaait...' Hena repeated mentally to herself, while trying to stay still in the long grass near some rocks on a meadow near the edge of some forest. She had flown maybe a day and a halfs worth of time, with some rest too, after the bridge meeting and getting new glasses, and now hunger had really started to grumble up her tummy. So now she was on the hunt for some food, specifically a trio of wild deers. Fresh adults by the looks of it. One of them had an obvious limp on it movement, making it an ideal target. Her patience had managed to hold for about five-ish minutes, simply waiting in her hiding spot for the deer to come close enough for her to pounce. Finally the trio did move a little bit closer, but Hena did not pounce yet. She had to wait for just the right moment... Which came when all three deers had their head low to eat. With them wide open, the sphinx pounced at the limper, pushing it to the ground hard, spooking its buddies, who ran away fast, simply trying to survive. There was a small cracking sound as the full weight of the sphinx came bearing down on deers frame, with an added bonus claws of the predator digging in on its flesh. Not wanting her prey to suffer much longer and to not let it get away, Hena opened her mouth and bit down on the nape of its neck, and gave it a hard bite. Deers panicked movement ceased rather quick. 'Thank you hunting instinct and memories of nature documentaries' she thought while licking her still human-like lips. before going in for another bite, intent on tearing some meat off from her fresh kill. Thanks to her new body, the flesh tearing was much easier to accomplish despite her human face. Teeth and bone strength had also most definitely gone up a bit, maybe along with muscles. So a good meal was most likely necessary to keep up its physical strength. After getting few more hunger satisfying mouthfuls of meat eaten, Henas pointed furry ears picked up the sound of something approaching her, making her look up, deer blood still dripping down her chest fur a little bit. 'Is that some version of manticore?' she asked in her head, while looking at the large lion creature, maybe a little bit larger than her, with bat-like wings and a tail of a scorpion. And it had two friends with it, eyeing her kill, and seemingly even her in a hungry way. Only the latter type of eyeing seemed to be different kind of hungry, which made Hena uncomfortable, causing her to arch her back in a threatening manner, with some hair already starting to stand up. She even began to growl a bit, as if to say 'don't come closer'. It did not seem to work. When they kept approaching, Hena had enough and let out an angry roar at the trio, which sounded like a mixture of woman screaming and an extremely loud lion, most likely having a varied level of intimidation. This only caused all three of the manticores roar back little bit louder. 'Yeah, frick no I'm staying here and fighting. I may have new body, that apparently has potential powers, but I ain't suicidal' With that thought, Hena turned her back at the three manticores and kicked the partially eaten deer carcass to their direction. While walking away she could hear them digging in on the free meal. She did not care, due to survival overwriting completely full stomach. Her stride was interrupted when she felt something grab on her rear, like trying to stop her from leaving. Culprit turned out to be a claw of the biggest member of the manticore trio, remaining two now almost fighting over the deer carcass. This one though obviously was hungry for something else. 'Oh heeell no!' Hena mentally groaned, accompanied with an eye-roll, and then physically followed by her wriggling loose from the manticores grip. It tried to grab on her again, only receive a whip-like smack from Henas lion-tail, right in the eye even. It clearly did not like that, growling at her, sounding frustrated. With a glare Hena tried again to leave, only to get stopped by the manticore again. Only this time it outright leapt on her, trying to get a hold of her waist area. This obviously lascivious move brought a rush of adrenaline and a wave of anger to Hena, making her suddenly rise up on her back legs with a furious roar, managing barely to push the manticore off of her and taking a furious swipe with both of her claws at its head. Manticore let out a pain filled roar as sphinxes claws repeatedly raked and shredded its face, even putting one of its eyes out with some lucky swipes. After receiving few more angry scratches, the manticore finally backed away from her, while trying to protect its remaining eye. Even its fellows understood to back further away from this female, who was now giving a few more angry roars at them, while beating its feathered wings furiously, finally taking to air and flying away from the trio, who now focused more on their injured fellow and the remaining deer carcass. '*Tsk* That was way too close. I seriously need to get to that lair and get to fighting shape before something worse happens to me...' Hena thought, now more determined to get to her new promised home. Hopefully it would be defencible sort of place at least. Nearby... "Did you see that?" asked a light purple unicorn stallion from another dark green one next to it, both wearing some kind of scouting armor and had a bag of mail scrolls with them. "Yes Sparkler, I'm not blind. That thing just made a lecherous manticore and its buddies to back off and then left." "No, not that. I meant the glasses that female creature seemed to have on its face." "How did you se-? Never mind. How do you think it got such item?" "I'm not certain Spirit Shield. I did hear from the grapevine that some travelers payed a toll to a creature with some enchanted glasses. Maybe that was the said creature." "Well, if we get lucky we don't meet it on our way to next town. We still need to get these scrolls to the local lord and mayor there." With a shared nod, the stallions kept on with their travelling, which did take them the same overall direction where the female feline creature had flown. Mainly they followed the road, while keeping an eye out in case of more beasts appearing. With the earlier manticores, and the new creature unknown to them, they could not be too careful with their surroundings. The road took them to some rock filled hills, with plenty of rocks that were almost size of an average cabin, with the road winding between them. Excellent place to set an ambush but also the shortest route to their destination, which was necessary due the urgency of their scrolls. "Hey Spirit? Do you think we might get ambushed or stopped by some bandits here?" Sparkler asked as they walked into a little more open area between all the large rocks. "Not likely Sparkler. Latest report said that the bandit gangs from these part were caught. So if anything, maybe at worst we get accosted by few wolves." "Oh dear. Well now I feel partially sorry for my need to burst that notion, my good sir." came a new voice ahead of them. Both stallions looked who was talking to them, only to freeze what they saw. There ahead of them down the road, laying on a rocky protrusion was the feline creature they had seen earlier. And now it was coming down and approaching them in a calm manner, or more like a cat ready to start playing with some fresh mice. And it did indeed wear a pair of glasses on its oddly flat face. "Wha- what are you?" Sparkler managed to ask, while Spirit was taking a defensive stance. "A sphinx. And I take it you are heading down this road, yes? In which case you first have to answer my riddle. If you get it right, I will let go past me. Get it wrong... Well, then I would have to kill you." "Both or just one one of us?" Sparkler asked. "Well, it might depend how will you answer. Together or alone. In latter case you both have to answer separately to different riddles. Your choice." It did not take long for both stallions to share a look, and turn back face this sphinx creature. "We'll answer together." Spirit Shield said. "Very well than, listen closely then." sphinx said back with a smile, before starting her riddle. "I will devour you from the inside out. I must be conquered every day, or I will take your life. Only in death can you stop me. Who am I?" Both stallions went silent, clearly thinking over the given riddle. After a couple of minutes had passed, they turned their back at the sphinx to whisper this over. She did not seem to mind that at all. "Any idea Spirit? Clearly we only got one chance here or we'll be dead..." "Not sure. I was thinking that maybe its someones enemy. It sounded believable in my head, but now whispering it out loud it feels like a wrong choice. I mean what enemy you would need to beat daily, but can only be stopped when you're dead? And then there's the whole 'devour you from the inside out' part. None of our enemies have done that... Well unless we count in that one really remote village that went crazy after being starving so long and so badly that they started eating their fellow villagers and anyone who arrived there..." "Yeah, I heard it was a nightmare to deal wit-... Wait, I feel like you're on to something there... I... I think I got it." "Really? Tell me too. That sphinx is starting to lick its lips a little too much..." The stallion duo whispered a bit more, before turning back to face the sphinx, looking a little more confident about their situation. Sphinx merely turned her head to the side questioningly with one brow raised. "We think we got the answer..." Sparkler said after audibly swallowing his fear back. "And what it may be?" the Sphinx inquired with a smile. "Hunger. The answer is hunger... Right?" stallion said carefully, followed by moment of silence that felt like something was stretching it to create some kind of dramatic tension. "That... Is correct. Congratulations to both of you. You may go past me alive and well." Sphinx said in an almost jovial tone, while leaping off from the road to sit on top of a nearby rock. "Oh... Well... Thank you ma'am... Should we tell at our destination that you dwell here, or something?" Spirit Shield thanked and asked, while sounding very relieved. "Oh do as you like. I won't be staying here for long. I'm intend on finding myself a proper lair, hopefully far, far away from any serious annoyances. Think I just take a short nap and then keep on travelling somewhere else." Sphinx answered, while stretching herself a little bit and headed to lay down on one of the more flatter rock. Deciding not to waste their permission to keep on going and avoiding to waste any more time, Sparkler and Spirit Shield carried on with their travelling, now with a story to tell when they would get to the towns tavern. Later at the village tavern... "So this sfinks thing just asked you a riddle or it would have killed you?" "Yes my good barkeep. And we saw it earlier drive off a manticore too." "So where is your travelling partner, Sparkler, then, if you answered correctly to it?" "Oh hes just delivering some mail scrolls to your mayor and local lord around this time. I just needed a stiff drink after that kind of encounter with potential death. He'll probably also report about the sphinx too." "Allrighty then. Where do you think that kitty thing was heading? Or what it is after?" "Hard to say. It only mentioned of trying to find a secure lair somewhere else. So no, you don't have riddle asking beastie as your neighbour. Although I do wonder where it does make its lair, or how long it has to travel?" Elsewhere... "Where in the heck is that lair?! And how darn far do I have to keep going?!" Hena cussed on her own, while gliding to the overall direction which the 'lair-pull' was guiding her. She did try to figure its overall location from the map knowledge gained from the map-book that unicorn family let her test the glasses speed-reading magic on. Only now the memories of all of those maps had began to fade little by little. Most likely she would need to refresh those memories with another reading session. Fast reading or not, Hena would need a text of something physically in front of her in order to memorize it for a time, or just do a good study session on a regular phases do get the info stay in her head. It was probably mentioned in that scroll too. So no photographic memory for her outside of riddles. While she kept on gliding, little higher in the low hanging clouds, there were two pairs of eyes looking her go. One cloud had a pair of pegasi, wearing a golden armor, while the other had a pair of griffins in thick leather armors, all of them making a mental note to report this sighting, before the feline creature was too far to see and returned to look at the other duo and surroundings, due to their orders to only keep watch over the ever changing borders between towns, city-states and traderoutes between them in case of bandits or monsters. And all four were sure they just saw a new kind of beast without being seen by it, and were very much relieved by that fact for some reason.